Online identity is quite a stong subject that has been worried about for a number of years, especially when fraud is concerned. I read an article on the bbc website, which was posted on 2nd August 2006 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5238992.stm) which is about a new child online saftey card which allows parents to pay £10 per year for the privilege of having an online identity card for their children to use to enable them to safely chat and serf online. I feel that this would be a good idea as it will only allow children to speak to other children who have the safety card up and running. Although they only need a password and an email address to access the service, it will still probably cut down the number of adults trying to pose as a child. Because of that fact, I believe parents would be obligated to persue the card to give them the peace of mind they need to allow their children to access the internet without any worry.
Another subject that is in debate is anonymity. An article on the bbc website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4227578.stm) indicates that Ian Clarke, Founder and co-ordinator of Freenet, has been engaging in a project for the past 5 years to try and get complete online anonymity. His aim is to try and allow users to share information, no matter what the content, with complete anonymity. The way it would work, is that users would have to share their hard disk with everyone else in order to store all of the content. This content is not checked for anything illegal, so it means that paedophiles and other online abusers will be able to gain access to child pornography and other illegal content. Is this not just fueling their habbit? It seems to me like this would be a terrible mistake as the government are supposed to be trying to control all of the illegal online activity so its a safe environment to use by all.
The article states "What worries many, is that Freenet is a lawless area". I believe this is extremely true as users of freenet will be carrying unknown data on their hard drives. This could be some seriously nasty information and data. So where do we draw the line? Are laws not there for a reason? It just seems like people are trying to see how much they can get away with online as it is without the introduction of freenet causing some interesting issues.
Until next week
Another subject that is in debate is anonymity. An article on the bbc website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4227578.stm) indicates that Ian Clarke, Founder and co-ordinator of Freenet, has been engaging in a project for the past 5 years to try and get complete online anonymity. His aim is to try and allow users to share information, no matter what the content, with complete anonymity. The way it would work, is that users would have to share their hard disk with everyone else in order to store all of the content. This content is not checked for anything illegal, so it means that paedophiles and other online abusers will be able to gain access to child pornography and other illegal content. Is this not just fueling their habbit? It seems to me like this would be a terrible mistake as the government are supposed to be trying to control all of the illegal online activity so its a safe environment to use by all.
The article states "What worries many, is that Freenet is a lawless area". I believe this is extremely true as users of freenet will be carrying unknown data on their hard drives. This could be some seriously nasty information and data. So where do we draw the line? Are laws not there for a reason? It just seems like people are trying to see how much they can get away with online as it is without the introduction of freenet causing some interesting issues.
Until next week
Labels: Anonymity and Abuse, Identity
posted by Boka at 7:54 AM
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